The Real Credit Card Frauds

Amy, just new to her world of dreams following her marriage, began to shuffle the mail in front of her. A bright envelope with magnetic greetings caught her eye. She slipped it from the rest and glanced at the front, reading the eye-catching phrases. "Congratulations!" Being newly wed, and just a couple of years from high school, she still felt a little elated at her good fortune. Grabbing the letter opener she slipped it underneath the flap and opened the letter. More good news; this reputable company was inviting her to enjoy the blessings of her good name by making her finances manageable and credible with a low interest card.

That made a lot of sense to Amy. She filled in the application quickly, never glancing at the small print written in legalese on the back.

How many homes and families fall into a spiraling vacuum of despair when their intentions were so noble and their naiveté so easily preyed upon? Credit card companies target the youth the way tobacco companies targeted them for years. Get them hooked while they feel immortal and impervious to problems in their future. Hook them with promises, extend them with increases and then slaughter them with the credit reporting gambit.

Sadly, these practices shadow the tobacco industries, heartless, advertising campaigns of the forties and fifties. Get them hooked with promised euphoria when the evidence is plainly against their ever escaping the habit, before their life is swallowed up in emotional devastation. A large percentage of divorces and suicide can be attributed to the debt escalated by credit cards. And, since they're a fairly recent malady, not over three generations, society has not developed a system of teaching the youth knowledgably and successfully.